Mike's Bike Blog

Belterra is a closed course curcuit race in the Belterra subdivison on the outskirts of Austin off of highway 290. Somehow I thought signing up for 2 races would be a good idea. I took advantage of the second race for $10 option as I signed up for the Cat 5 and the 35+ 4/5 race. The Cat 5 race started at 8am for 40 minutes followed up with a 40 minute break before heading out for the 50 minute 4/5 race. My plan for the first race was to just sit in as much as possible and to conserve the legs for the 4/5 race which I suspected would be a lot faster. My goal for the races was to show up and get through them unskathed to get my last 2 races as a Cat 5 racers.

2010 Course
From the start the course goes on a slight uphill and features a larger hill before making a 180 and heading down. So returning back down to the start area is a slight down hill. At the start there's a right turn with a little straight away before a short steep hill where the finish is. Right after the uphill finish is a 2nd 180 degree turn. Don't get me wrong when I say hills, at no time in either of the 2 races did I shift to the small ring, the course is a big ring course.

Cat 5 Race
The race started with around 50 racers on a brisk morning. By the time we reached the big hill at the first 180 turn the pack of 50 was starting to string out a bit. From that point on a group of 20 stayed together. A few riders tried to get away but nothing would stick, as soon as we would get on the downhill stretch heading back it would get chased down. Zach Horne (Austin Cycle Camp) gave a go and attacked on the big hill.  I jumped on his wheel but as we rounded the 180 turn at the top I could see that the entire pack was right there and it would be caught on the down hill section. I shut it down as Zach got a little gap. As I suspected he was caught around the 1KM mark for the lap.

One observation for the race on the uphill section the pace would slow down to 18-20 mph, but on the downhill people would let their carbon wheels spin faster and try to hammer it. I suspect if one would have attacked on the uphill stretch some damage could have been done.  At the very least the pack of 20+ would have been broken up. I contemplated giving it a go but decided to just sit in and conserve as much as I could.

I stuck with my plan and on the last lap just hung in the back staying out of the way as not to get caught up in any crashes. In the end I finished 17th. For this race my average power was 22 watts below my FTP.

Between races I went back to my car, ate a banana and refueled up. I felt pretty good and my average power for the 40 minutes was typical of some of the 40 minute SST intervals I've been doing once a week. I made a huge error between races however. I didn't adequately warm up again before the 4/5 race. All I did was ride down to the staging area, everything felt good so I assumed I was warmed up from the 1st race.

35+ 4/5 Race
I had 3 other Southwest Cycle Sport teammates in this race. Peter told me to stick to his wheel if I got into trouble as I wasn't sure how long my legs would hold up for a 2nd race. From the start I was right on his wheel, but as we left I was already in difficulty and wasn't able to hold his wheel. I soon found myself at the back as we made our way through the 1st 180 turn. Not a good place to be and then the inevitable I was off the back. It took 2 laps to get my legs back and then I had to objectives. To pick off as many riders as I could and to make sure I didn't get lapped.

I slowly made my way through small groups of riders that were dropped from the main pack. There were 2 Shama riders that I caught up to but I couldn't shake them on the downhill section, they go flying by me on the downhill of the big hill and then I'd catch on at some point before the next hill. I'd pass them on the uphill and would pull all the way to the 180 turn back down. We played this game for the remaining laps, we caught and passed several riders. Somewhere along the way a Toyota rider latched on with us. We finished out the race with this route, we even lapped a few riders as well. I am aware that for me to pull on the uphill section which seemed to be into the wind was not a good idea. However I had my reasons, when we would get on the uphill section the pace would slow down, this was allowing the main pack to get miles into us and I did not want to get lapped. So I would move to the front and keep the pace up. In the end I finished 37th. For the 50 minutes I averaged 20 watts below my FTP, the Normalized Power was a few watts above my FTP.

That should conclude my Cat 5 racing as I applied for a Cat 4 upgrade. Not sure how long it takes to get the upgrade, hopefully I'll have it in time for the next race. I'm debating Walburg or Pacebend. When I got home and looked at the power file for the 2 races something caught my eye. The average power for the cat 5 race which I stated was 22 watts below my FTP and falls into the wattage that I hold for 40 minutes for a SST interval the normalized power was a lot higher than what I was expecting. NP was 308 watts, this leads me to believe my FTP has risen.

I'm not one to shy away from getting out on the bike when there's water on the streets or a downpour. Really the only thing that makes me think twice about the weather conditions is if my bike is clean and how much I want to clean everything afterwards. If it looks like the bad weather is here to stay for a few days I'll get out and do my rides for a few days in the elements and clean it up when the weather clears up again.

This approach has worked well for me, no crashes or even close calls to speak of. That is until 3 weeks ago, it had been raining heavily the night before and the roads were still wet when I went for my lunchtime ride. While I was out on the ride it started to rain a bit, but not monsoon conditions. I was on my second 20 minute Sweet Spot Training (SST) interval for the day. In fact I had about 1 minute left on the effort and I had 1 hard right turn to negotiate. I let up on the pedals and applied pressure to the breaks. I wasn't slowing, I then realized I was hydroplaning! The back time started to slide to the left  and fishtail. Just about that time I hit a dry patch of road. When the back tire made contact with the road it catapulted me straight into the air like a bucking bronco. I went down hard onto my left side and slid a good distance. Luckily the pavement was wet, I hate to think how tore up I could have been. As it was the only damage suffered was to my Clear2Go bottle, it got totally mangled, I think a car ran over it as I didn't noticed it came dislodged and rode off before realizing it was missing.

Well that was 3 weeks ago, then today once again it had rained the night before and the roads were wet, but when I went out for my ride the skies were dry. I had another set of 20 min SST intervals to do and given the wet conditions I thought doing them on the Twin Creeks circuit (1 mile loop) would be the best option. I've done this workout on this same course in similar conditions and I know to take the roundabouts with caution. In wet conditions when I enter the roundabout I gently apply the brakes as I stop pedaling.  Before I started the ride I let some air out of my tires to compensate for the wet pavement.

About 13 minutes into the first 20 minute interval I entered the roundabout, stopped pedaling and as I started the turn the tires went out from under me at 24.4mph. I slid across the road a good 10 feet or so to the curb. I didn't sustain too much new roadrash, I seemed to land in the same exact spot as the previous crash so re-tore up what was just starting to heal. I landed on my hip pretty hard so along with the fresh roadrash I'm sporting a rather large lump

These 2 crashes got me thinking about my tires and how they might not be the best selection for wet conditions. Back in August I bought 2 Vittoria Rubino Intrepids from bonktown. Giving a quick search it would seem others aren't too fond of their handling in wet conditions. Another factor in this last crash could have been my speed, the other times I negotiated thru the roundabout this morning I averaged 23.9mph, 23.5mph, 24mph and 23.6mph. When I crashed I was going 24.4 mph, a bit faster than the other times. I felt like I was in control and nothing was different that is until I hit the pavement.

One thing I'm coming away from this experience with is that when it's wet out I'm not going to do SST intervals or anything with intensity. When I'm attempting to hold certain wattages, especially wattage around threshold it's too much for the conditions and it's not worth the risk. Next time I'll just do a regular easy ride and complete the intervals on the trainer or forego the interval all together. Seated hill repeats would have been a good alternative for a day like today too.

Actually it's 3 crashes in 3 weeks, I nearly forgot about the crash on Monday on the inline skates. I was skating around the neighborhood with Zeb. He was up on the sidewalk and I was in the street, we were going up a slight hill so we weren't going fast, 3 or 4 mph when I hit a pebble. I stumbled a bit and wasn't able to recover and went down. Again on the same darn side hitting my hip and tearing open the scap on my knee.

On Sunday I had a slight change of plans. I was scheduled to partake in the Super Squadra Advanced Race Tactics and Skills Clinics. But with a change in employment status I backed out at the last minute. Dave Wenger was understanding and quickly refunded my money.

My plan now was to ride over to City Park Road for the fitness testing that Team Austin Cycle Camp (AC2) was putting on. I'm having some serious car problems, check engine light has come on and it sputters and chunks along. However, not getting up in time put the kabash on that and I was lucky to get to the start in time driving.

The fitness test comprised of a weight in, body fat composition and VO2 testing. I've determined my VO2 by a 5 minute power test and plugging it into a formula so I was expecting this type of test. AC2 was not performing this kind, instead it was using Polar watches and heart rate straps. I guess this is a sub VO2 max test, I opted out of it and only did the body composition. In hindsight I wish I had so I could have compared my VO2 testing to the Polar watch method. I must say using the Polar method looked a lot easier, all it involved was pushing buttons on the watch and sitting and relaxing for 5 minutes. When I did my VO2 test I had to ride as hard as I could for 5 minutes!

I did opt to do the body composition test to see if the number I get on my home scale would be consistent with the commercial grade scale. You might recall one of my 2010 goals is to get my body fat down from 16% as weighed on my scale to 12%. The number returned on the AC2 scale was 6.5%! Woot! I've already beat my goal! I'll keep at it to drop down to 12% on my scale and that should see a drop on the AC2 scale the next time I weigh in. I think they said the next Fitness test would be April.

Up next on the Fitness test was a 3 mile ride up City Park Road. We all parked in the free parking before the Ranger Station so we rode down to the Ranger Station and up 3 miles to Pearce Road. This first time up was at a leisurely pace to get warmed up and to get accustomed to the course. The second time up was going to be a mass start but timed. The 3rd time up we'd do a time trial start with 15 second gaps between and the order would be close to how the placing was in the mass start, but reversed. Meaning whoever came in first in the mass start would get to go last.

As we started the mass start we stayed together for a little bit, but Zach Horne (Team AC2) and Trey Steele (Team AC2/Hotel San Jose) started to push the pace and get a little gap. Soon there after the pack started to string out. I wanted to maintain a consistent power output going up the slight grade (1.8% for the 3.03 miles) and was shooting for holding 315-320 watts the entire 3 miles. Before the 2 mile mark I caught up and passed Trey. Right at the 2 mile mark I passed Zach, that meant I was on my own the last mile with nobody to chase down. Interesting on this effort the 1st 1.5 miles I had a higher wattage then the second 1/2.  Here's my numbers for the Mass Start effort:

Time: 9:59:00
Avg Power: 318 watts
Normalized Power: 334 watts
Max Watts: 791 watts
Avg Heart Rate: 171 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph
Max Speed: 36.9 mph
Cadence: 85 rpm

We coasted back down to the Ranger Station, I stopped at the parking lot to drop off my second bottle. Since I wasn't drinking on the way up at all I didn't need to carry the extra weight, I should have left the other one there too. Since I won the mass start I had the luxury of going last. About .4 mile to the finish I caught up to the main string of riders and unfortunately there was a mini van trying to pass. The van passed me but they were stuck behind the string of riders on the winding road. I had to slow down a little to negotiate around the van and riders as well. With the finish in my sights so was my 15 second guy, Zach. I stepped on the gas for the last minute to catch Zach. I averaged 411 watts in the last minute and caught him at the line. This last effort was done properly with a negative split, so my 2nd half had a higher wattage then the first, part of that could be because of the 1 minute sprint to the finish. I didn't do that on the 1st effort. Numbers from the Time Trial Start effort:

Time: 9:57:00
Avg. Power: 321 watts
Normalized Power: 336 watts
Max Watts: 674 watts
Avg. Heart Rate: 168 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.3 mph
Max Speed: 36.4 mph

Next time I'll be shooting to ride the 3 miles under 9 minutes. Yes that's correct I want to shave almost a  full minute off my time. To do it I'll need to average 2 miles per hour faster and go 20.3 mph. To achieve this I'll need to weight 160 pounds and I'll need to average 335 watts. That plays right into my progression plan for the season. Also for next time I'll do a little bit more warming up and only do 1 real effort and leave nothing in the tank and approach it as a true all out effort.

Here's my ride file at TrainingPeaks.com

I was recently (1/07-1/11) in Sequim WA, over Christmas my father passed away so I was there for the memorial and burial. The service was on Friday and before I get into the biking portion one thing on the service... It was an overcast day with some off and on showers in Sequim. When we got to the cemetery and started it was overcast still but not raining. Midway through to the west the clouds parted a little and the sun shown through down on us. It's not like the whole area was sunny, it was like it was a beam of light directed down upon us. Then as we ended the service and got into the cars the small opening in the sky closed back up and the sun was hidden once again. When we got back to my mom's house we stood around asking each other if they saw what had just happened just to make sure we weren't dreaming. It couldn't have been scripted any better in a Robert Redford movie. It was very surreal.

On Saturday my brother Mark picked me up from my mom's place and took me back to his in Chimacum for some mountain biking. He has a cabin on 5 acres that is completely off the grid. He gets power from a generator and solar panels. Just down from his property is Gibbs Lake that has miles of single track mountain bike trails. We only scratched the surface of the trails there in our hour and forty minute trek of 5.77 miles. I would say the trails we rode were of intermediate technically. There were a lot of roots and logs that got us to dismount and walk over. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that it had rained the day before so the ground was still damp thus making the exposed roots slick. In the short distance we rode we climbed 2103 feet.

The next morning I got up early and drove over to his place so we could hit the trails at the crack of dawn. This time we headed out to explore the logging roads that meander around his property and the lake. This is more my speed of mountain biking, nothing technical just miles of logging roads. Plus the terrain was better suited for the bike I was riding. We spent 2 hours exploring the logging trails netting 10.76 miles and 2077 feet of climbing. As I was riding this day I thought how fun it would be to be on a cross bike riding the logging roads. The terrain was perfect for a cross bike.

After the ride Mark whipped us up a raw recovery smoothie. He mixed up some cilantro, spinach, and some other greens into his veggiemixer into the best recovery drinks I've ever had.

If you're ever around the Olympic Peninsula area (Sequim, Port Angeles or Port Townsend) I highly recommend the Gibbs Lake area for mountain biking. In fact you can probably drive up to Mark's for directions and an after ride smoothie. He also has plans to add cabins so let me know he might be taking reservations!

Riding with my big brother was great fun and it rekindled a little fire in me to do more mountain biking. I love riding around in the backcountry exploring new trails and taking pictures.  Although I only had the iPhone with me for pictures.

Saturday's Route
Sunday's Route
Facebook Photo Album

Before I get into the numbers for 2009, one disclaimer, I don't set a goal amount of miles to ride, nor do I set a goal for average speed. I train on too many hills to care about my overall average speed as doing hill repeats at 10 mph tends to bring the overall number down.

Here's my numbers for 2009:

Total Miles: 7,356
Total Climbing: 307,316
Calories: 285,606 kJ
Avg Speed: 17 mph
Max Speed: 69.68 mph
Avg Cadence: 77

For 2009 I set some lofty goals and my direction in riding got a bit more focused as I got my feet wet in bike racing. 2009 saw me pin on my first race number at the Tour of New Braunfels after missing out on the Copperas Cove road race.

    •    A 40K Time Trial in 1 hour or less - I never pursued this goal, this will turn out to be a longer term goal than one set for 2010. First I will need to average 25 mph in the Run Far Time Trial and once I can do that then I think I can start thinking about a 40K in under an hour.
    •    Ride 200 miles in 1 day - This is another one that I didn't go after. I had hoped to do the Texas Time Trial 12 hour race and get the 200 miles in during it. But as the season progressed I didn't train for that type of distance and concentrated solely on the Cat 5 race distance <50 miles. It is still something I'll keep as a long term goal but nothing I'm putting down on paper that needs to be completed in 2010.
    •    Ride up the 3 sisters in 3 minutes flat, (2008 goal was 3'30 current PR is 3'24) - This was my big goal for 2009 and I did it!
    •    Join a team/club - I started racing for Southwest Cycle Sport in 2009.
    •    Ride the Outlaw Trail 100 in 5 hours or less - I ended up not riding in the Outlaw Trail 100 in 2009 as I was focused on other races like the Chappell Hill Bank Classic and the Texas State Road Race Championships. I did come close to a sub 5 hour century when I did the FatCyclist.com 100 miles of Nowhere ride. Again this is not something I'm going to carry over for 2010.
    •    Increase my FTP by 20% - That's a big jump for 1 year, I've seen some increases in my FTP this year which is good. I did raise my FTP by 14 watts this year. For 2010 I'll continue to raise FTP as it will be needed to meet some of my other goals, but I'm not going to make it a line item for 2010.
    •    Increase my 5 second and 1 minute power to balance out my power profile - I was able to raise my 1 minute power this year as well as my 5 minute. I spent a couple weeks focusing on VO2 Max and was able to raise my 5 minute power. I'm going to carry over working on my 5 second sprint for 2010 as this is an area that is a limiter for me.
    •    Get my body fat tested so I know how much to lose. In High School my body fat percentage was 11%. Ideally I want to get it down to 13%, I'll have to see how realistic that is, but at this point I'd rather focus on body fat than solely on weight. If anybody has recommendations on where to get a true body fat test in Austin let me know. I want either the calipurs or one of the newer tests that use professional quality dual electron machines, not the consumer level scales that give you weight and body fat. - I did lose about 15 pounds this year getting down to my lowest weight for the Hugel (162 lbs). I'm going to carry over this goal for 2010 to get my body fat % down.
    •    Raise $1000 for Team Fatty and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. - I fell short of raising $1,000 for Team Fatty, but did raise money for the cause.

2010 Goals

• Average 25 mph for a Run Far Time Trial
• Get body fat down to 12% currently 16%
• Place in the top 10 in 3 targeted Cat 4 races this season
• Improve 5 second sprint power
• Ride up the 3 Sisters in 2 minutes 30 seconds
• Ride up the 3 Sisters 20 times in one sitting
• Get my USA Cycling Level 3 coaching certificate

On Saturday I headed over to Bee Cave for the Southwest Cycle Sport ride. I left early to make it by the 7:30am roll out time. You see the previous week I got the start time wrong, for some reason I thought it started at 8. I missed the roll out so did the Dam Loop solo. So this time I left with ample time to get there, but I missed Peter's tweet and Facebook post saying it was too cold to ride.

After giving Peter, a Buffalo, NY native, grief about going soft for not riding in the 26 degree weather he said I still had time to get to the ATC ride, but to be prepared to hold on tight as it can be fast. I've heard from others that the ATC ride can be really fast. As I left the parking lot I briefly contemplated heading back home and going back to bed but headed downtown to give this ATC ride a try.

The first thing I'd like to point out, there was not one person on a tricycle. I figured I would be able to hold the wheel of anybody on a tricycle, but maybe it was too cold for them guys. I didn't do an exact head count but I'd estimate there were 12-14 riders at the start. Most the of the local race teams were represented Violet Crown, Velossimo, Austin Bikes and AT&T all had several riders representing. There were a couple of guys on tri bikes as well. I was expecting to see more tri guys, but roadies seemed to be the dominate riders.

We rolled out at a fairly casual pace making our way to MoPac and then over to Southwest Parkway. I was told it was at this point that the hammer starts to come down.  On the rollers of Southwest Parkway I averaged 21.8 mph. The pace on the bigger hills was very manageable and there was times when the wheel I was following would start to lose contact with the group and I'd have to pull around and bridge the small gap before I'd get dropped.

On 71 the pace quickened once again, I averaged 24 mph from Southwest Parkway to Bee Cave. On the final hill leading into Bee Cave the group started to get strung out, I got out of the saddle and bridged up to the guy who was pushing the pace and followed him up. We regrouped at Bee Cave Parkway, 1/2 the group took the short route (30 miles) and headed back to the ATC shop via Bee Cave Parkway. The rest of us continued on to 620.

The group never really seemed to get organized, we did get a paceline going but nobody really rotated through. There seemed to be 1 strong rider pulling us all along, found out later his name was Stan, he was in town from Baton Rouge, LA. He never really pulled off per se, but as the pace would drop a little I would go around him and try to kick it up a little and push the pace to 24-26 mph at times.  At one point I couldn't get anybody to pull through and I was starting to get thirsty so I pulled to the right hoping someone would come through but had to take in some Heed so I wouldn't get dehydrated.  At the Dam coming up the hill at Steiner Ranch Stan opened up a lead as I got stuck behind everybody going up a little slower. This section of road is not condusive to passing riders as every few feet there's drainage grates that take up 3/4 of the lane. This makes going around people a littl hard. As we made it to the top at Hippie Hollow Stan had opened up a sizeable gap. I made my way up to the front and set the pace to try and reel in Stan. I hit top end speed of 28 mph, luckily he caught caught at the light so I didn't have to burn too much catching him. At the 2222/620 intersection the group decided to continue on to Anderson Mill and take Spicewood Springs to 360. Stan and I pushed the pace and when we turned off of Anderson Mill there was only 4 of us left. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else if we dropped them or if they decided to cut it short and go back via 2222.

At 360 one of the riders bid us farewell as he turned and headed the opposite direction on 360. That left Stan, Chris (one of the few guys on a tri bike) and myself. Chris and Stan were from out of town so that left me to navigate us back to the shop.

This was a fun ride, I was really expecting to get dropped at some point and that didn't happen nor was there any place I felt like I was riding over my limit trying to stay on. In fact I pushed the pace and took my fair share of pulls. I'll have to go back to give this group another go and see if the cold was keeping the true hammerfest riders home and maybe see if any of the tricycles make the ride.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted that doesn't mean however that I haven't been riding. Far from it, albeit I've scaled back a little in the on the bike training and I've been supplementing it with other forms of workouts. I've started to throw in some running in place of a morning or evening ride. Nothing too far, I started out small, 1 mile and I'm up to 2.5 miles. At the pace I'm running I'm not overdoing anything, the last thing I want to do is get a running injury that will keep me off the bike. My mile splits are almost identical, with the 2nd mile usually faster. I guess if I go any slower it would be walking, not sure.  In 2010 I plan on doing 1 Triathlon, it will probably be the Rookie Tri. I doubt I'll do more than 1, but I'll do one just so I can say I've done one. I just don't have the time to train for 3 sports. I like concentrating on only 1 and perfecting it as best I can. For now throwing in some running doesn't seem to bad. Lucky for me my wife is a swim coach and not only swam in school but ran track so she can help with those disciplines. I've also been lifting weights, about once a week and doing the slideboard (That's Zeb demonstrating).

As for on the bike workouts I've been doing primarily sweet spot training (SST). These intervals are at around 90% of threshold wattage. I've been doing 2 x 20s, 1x30 or 1x60 training efforts. SST is the training zone between level 3 and level 4, the sweet spot if you will. After the 1x30 I then like to follow it up with a run, I believe the triathletes call this a brick. It's these types of workouts that will compose my winter training schedule.

Speaking of winter I believe there's a correlation between how much cold I can handle to my body fat percentage. For every percent of body fat I lose I also lose 2-5 degrees of tolerable temperature. Last winter I occasionally wore arm warmers and on days it was below 35 leg warmers. The year before that I didn't even own arm warmers or leg warmers. This year if it's 40 degrees I'm in at least arm warmers. With each percent of body fat I lose it's taking off a layer of toughness to tolerate the cold.

How's everybody else's winter training going?

If you're familiar with the Austin bike scene you'll know what the Tuesday Nighter is, but for those of you not familiar it is the local World Championships, the hammerfest ride. It's not a real race, no prize money handed out, no photographers, no follow cars and no wheel trucks. It's just the opportunity to make your buddies suffer. The Tuesday Nighter has lost a little of it's luster over the past couple years as the roads had deteriorated, the suburban sprawl has reached out to the once country roads that  now see a steady stream of traffic on them. The potholes aren't a problem any more as most of the course has been repaved and the traffic is low on a Sunday.

As if we don't have enough options for a Sunday ride Austin Bikes has put a new spin on the Tuesday Nighter. They have introduced their version named SUMO (SUnday MOrning) which meets at 9am at the shop and departs to the Tuesday Nighter start line for a 10am unofficial start.

This past Sunday I made my way down to Austin Bikes to partake. I've never done the Tuesday Nighter on Tuesday so I wasn't too sure of the course and what to expect. There were some familiar faces in the group though. As we were waiting for the roll out a group of AT&T riders were discussing about Scott who was en route to the start. They good hearted banter was about how he would probably get lost. The statement was made that Scott mainly rides Parmer because that's the route he knows and won't get lost on. We had a good laugh ribbing him in his absence while we waited.

We meandered through downtown Austin making our way to the start. There were a handful of riders waiting, we rolled up to wait a few minutes for the 10am start. As we were waiting I looked back to a rider behind me and see he is popping the top to a Red Bull. I tell Chuck this is not a good sign and we both figure we'll be dropped before we can even get clipped in. Luckily for the first lap the group stays together for the most part. A few riders seemed to have formed a small breakaway a few minutes ahead of us. Or dare I say the A group had separated from the B group.

On lap 2 on the hilly section on Thaxton Road the group slowed as we negotiated the incline and a small crosswind. I got caught out of the protection of the pack as I was to the left of everyone and was unprotected from the wind as the pack organized. I was about to slow down and drop to the back and get into the group when a rider broke away and was going to try to bridge up to the group that was ahead of us. It sounded like a good plan and I was positioned well to attack as well. I quickly caught my fellow attacking rider and passed him. This left me all by myself to bridge the gap. I was making progress but I was quickly burning out. Just about this time Scott passed me and I grabbed his wheel. We each took pulls as we made our way to closing the gap picking off a few riders in the process.

We had the last few riders within our sites and would catch them in about 40 seconds at our current pace.  Then everything unravelled, Scott was pulling but instead of making the right turn on Old Lockhart Road the people we were chasing continued straight and so did Scott. I shouted up to Scott that I think we missed our turn. We came to a complete stop and looked back as the chase group rounded the turn onto Old Lockhart Road.

We turned around and tried to catch back on. At this point the wind in my sails had gone out, we never could quite catch back on and I slowly started losing Scott's wheel. The gap was only a few seconds between me and Scott but I couldn't close it down. On Old Lockhart we caught a couple riders that were off the back as well, however they didn't make the right turn on Nuckols Crossing but continued on Old Lockhart and so did Scott. I followed Scott trying to put more of an effort in to tell him we missed the turn and finally caught him but we were way off course and near William Cannon Road. Since we missed the final lap we decided to just head back to Austin Bikes and call it a day.

The SUMO ride is a great ride near race pace, just be careful on whose wheel you follow. I told Scott I'd give him a few weeks of learning the course before I come out again.

The drama for the Hugel started Thursday evening, for me anyway. At Ethan's soccer practice, I coach his U8 team, as we were working on shots I dribble down to the goal and fired off a shot. Not a hard shot, but a decent shot and as I plant my left leg and kick the ball with my right, but the muscle in my left leg shrieked with pain and I instantly knew something was wrong. I don't believe I pulled the muscle in my quadriceps, but it was strained none the less. It hurt to walk on it, on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being excruciating pain that warrants morphine it was only a 4.

When I got home I stretched it and used the foam roller on it. It felt alright on Friday when I tested it out, but that was on the flat road of Shoal Creek and Great Northern. I didn't know what to expect when the grade went past 12%.

One last thing that is a crucial piece to my ride was on Friday night when I was getting everything ready for the ride I come to find out I only had 4 Endurolytes! That's no good as I typically take 3-4 an hour. I barely had enough Anti-Fatigue capsules and Energy Surge.

Now for the ride, there were a lot of riders again this year and clogged the roads as we started rolling. Things started to thin out a bit once we hit 360. I worked a bit harder on this section so I could put some space between myself and a lot of people for when we hit High Road. My plan worked as High Road was not littered with riders, there were still a few stoppers and people pushing their bikes but at least there was more space to maneuver around them. My plan for the first section was to carry to bottles of Perpetuem for fueling and Espresso gel when needed for some added calories. I didn't plan on stopping at any of the rest stops but go the entire 38 miles and refill my bottles back at Zilker Park. This plan worked and my quad posed no problems at all during this section.

Loop 2 is the doosie for the ride with most of the climbing packed into this section. I'm not sure how many of the starters go onto even attempt the second part, but I'd say 3/4 of the people go home after the 1st part. The first real challenge is Smokey Valley with it's 24% grade and then up the remainder of Ladera Norte. It's quite the 1-2 punch. I made it up both with little difficulty. I opted not to stop at rest stop #3, the rest stop house, as I had enough water to get me to the rest stop at River Place.

Then came Beauford. Beauford gave me a near knock out blow. Right at the base my right quad started to spasm and cramp up. I think I was over compensating with my right leg to make up for the injury on my left. Boy did I pay for it. Whenever I would stand and put any power to my pedal my quad would hurt. Somehow I made it to the top. Courtyard came too soon though, the lower sections I was able to sit and spin at about 60 rpms, but the top section was more of the same. Courtyard tried to inflict it's misery on me. I so wanted to zig zag up it but there was too much traffic coming from both directions. I did try a little weave but it was more like a drunken stagger. At the top I stopped to relax the legs a little and to take 2 of the Endurolytes, which didn't kick in till I got to the top of City Park.

Onward I pedaled to the River Place rest stop. Once you get on Big View you go down it for a little bit, but at this point you don't go all the way down that's a special treat saved for the return. Well I somehow missed the bright orange arrows for the right hand turn off of Big View. I got practically all the way down to the bottom. I got all the way down to the base, where the steep grade warning sign is. NOT GOOD, I had to go back up and find the turn. Back on track I finally made it to the River Place rest stop. I refilled my bottle with more Perpetuem, I had packed up 3 bottle servings into ziplock baggies so I could refill. I stopped long enough to refill grab a couple fig newtons and chat with Andy Webb for a bit to swap stories of the ride so far. Luckily the rest of this outter section was good, I ended up dropping the 2 guys I was riding with at that point. One guy on Bullick Hollow and the other one on 620 near Steiner ranch on the return leg. I stopped at River Place again to refill my bottle again and stretch a little. I also downed my last 2 Endurolytes.

Since I didn't get all the way down to the bottom of Big View I decided I'd better get my monies worth and do the entire Big View. Plus I wanted to take the chance that the park at the bottom would have a bathroom. I could have made it the entire ride without stopping to use the restroom, but I want to go up Jester with as little weight as possible. My hunch paid off and the restroom was open. A small price to pay of climbing up Big View, plus I didn't want to cheat and not do the entire route, I want to earn my t-shirt. On the way to Jester there was intermittent cramping in both legs now. I would try to sit and not stand as much as possible.

On a good day Jester can be difficult, even when fresh. I said a quick prayer to get me up to the top, oh yeah, I'll call on the big Guy in times of trouble. I sat as much as possible which was a bit past the strip mall, actually to a drive way, I think it's an office complex. I stood and managed the pain switching back to the saddle to relieve some of the pain. Didn't help much. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to get to the top.

All I had to do was get my tail the last 10 miles back to Zilker Park. This proved to be a hard path to the finish. Once I got on 360 I had a complete full on cramping. It was so bad it was not something I could get through or at least want to get through. I immediately pulled over at the Buddha Temple driveway to catch my breath. The pain subsided after a minute and I pushed on. The rest of the way was kind of a cat and mouse game to see how hard I could ride without red lining and overdoing it. I was able to catch and pass 4 or 5 riders on my way back to Zilker Park.

What when right:

• I bettered my time from last year. This year I had a time of 7 hours, with a 7 hour 31 minute duration. Compared to 8 hours 24 minutes of active time and a total duration of 10 hours.
• I vastly minimized my rest stop time, I went in with a goal of only stopping when needed and not sit around at the rest stops. I had more time spent at stop lights then I did restng at the rest stops.
• As long as I didn't have to stand I had ample power and my endurance was spot on and felt I could have kept riding.

What went wrong:

• Not enough electrolytes. It was way too hot, 80 degrees. In retrospect I should have brought along Heed which does have some electrolyte components. Not sure if it would have been enough but might have minimized things. Yes I could have taken in some Gatorade or Pickle Juice, but 1 it's not advised to mix Hammer products with a simple sugar drink like Gatorade. Since I had not tried either scenarios during a race is not the time to experiment.
• Forgetting to press start  on my Garmin 705 for 2.5 miles into the ride.
• Last year I had a lot of lactic acid build up, it would hurt on the down hills and my legs would get tight. This year I had no lactic acid build up in my legs, again which leads me to believe to think my conditioning was way better and I was better prepared for the ride.

STATS:
1st Loop (38 miles)
Average Speed 18
Max Speed: 43.6
Average/Normalized Power: 184/260 watts
Ascent: 4064 feet
kJ (Calories): 1344

2nd Loop (71 miles)
Average Speed: 15
Max Speed: 45.7
Average/Normalized Power: 167/229 watts
Ascent: 9708 feet
kJ (Calories): 2887

Footnote: The above accents would mean a total climb of 13,771 feet. However when I run it through some software that supposedly throws out bad Garmin data it comes out to 10,050 feet. 209 is the total number of times while in my 25 and knew I was in my last gear but still tried to shift to an easier gear to  see if I miraculously had one more gear to help spin up the hills.

The first real test to Hugel comes at High Road. It is a short but steep hill. The hill itself I don't find to challenging, it's early in the ride so the legs are fresh and have had ample time to warm up. However, I suggest surveying who is around you when you approach the end of Toro Canyon Rd. Last year when I hit the base of the hill and looked up it was total chaos. People up near the top were zig zagging from shoulder to shoulder, riders were falling over or stopping, chains were breaking. It was a mess. Be ready for this and if you can time your approach do so. If you are weary of the riders in your group it might be advantageous to get some distance between you and them.

One other thing to look out for on High Road is this section is a lolipop route, you come down Toro Canyon take a right onto High Road, go up it, it loops around in sort of a circle and comes back out on High Road. Thus there is potential for mishaps if riders coming down Trail of the Madrones Rd. fail to stop at the stop sign and cross in front of riders going up.